Page 119 of Tides of Shadows

We yielded to one another without haste. When at last we came together, I drifted off to sleep. Lying next to him, I felt safe.

Chapter

37

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was the empty space beside me. The sheet was cold to the touch, Aidenar must have risen long ago. For a moment I lay still, listening to the peace of the morning castle, the distant steps of servants in the corridors, the faint song of birds from beyond the window.

I stretched slowly beneath the covers, feeling my muscles wake to life. The light that slipped through the window had that soft, peculiar hue that belonged only to early dawn. I was just about to rise from the bed when the door opened quietly and Aidenar came in, carrying a basket of food.

“I thought we might spend the day together,” he said, setting the basket on the small table by the window. His voice was warm. “I don’t want Tristan keeping you company all the time.”

I let out a short laugh before I could stop myself.

“Are you jealous again?”

He set the basket down with care, straightened, and turned toward me, slowly. I knew that look. The silver of his eyes deepened at once, sharp and predatory. My laughter died in my throat as he began to move toward me with that purposeful, unhurried stride of his that always meant trouble.

He reached the bed and, with the small use of his power, he pulled the cover off me. Leaving me in nothing but a thin linen nightdress. Cool air brushed over my bare skin.

He didn’t give me time to react. He climbed onto the bed and slid between my legs, his weight pressing me into the mattress. I felt the hard line of his body push against my center while his hands closed around my hips, holding me in place. He bent over me until his face hovered but a breath from mine.

“I am being gentle with you,” he whispered, his breath hot against my skin. “But if I see your desires growing, I will fuck you every day, until your body forgets other men exist.”

His eyes burned silver, and I felt every inch of him pressed along me, the insistent heat of his arousal even through the cloth of his trousers.

“Can we just eat breakfast now?” he added in an almost ordinary tone.

My heart was pounding. I felt my nipples tighten beneath the thin fabric, felt the low thrum of desire rising in me. I smiled at him, wicked and reckless.

“I am not hungry,” I said softly, without looking away from his eyes.

Aidenar’s lashes lowered, and a slow, feral smile curved his lips. His hands slipped higher, beneath my nightdress.

We did not eat breakfast.

When at last we managed to leave the chambers, we made our way toward the stables.

“There is something I would like to show you,” he said, nodding toward two horses that waited for us in the yard.

We rode out through the castle gate and followed steep, stony paths into the heights. Two guards rode behind us at a distance.

The lands around Durminas were wild in their splendor, full of green. Dense broadleaf woods slowly gave way to dark fir forests the higher we climbed. The air grew cooler, clean and sharp, scented with resin and moss. The horse beneath me moved with steady confidence, and I watched the sunlight pierce the canopy, falling in long golden shafts between the branches.

After a time, Aidenar drew his horse to a halt and dismounted. He stepped to my side and lifted his hands to help me down. I didn’t need the help, but he used every excuse to be near me, to touch me. I loved nothing more than his strong arms holding me. When my feet found the ground, he kept his hands at my waist for a moment longer than was needed, his eyes lingered on mine.

“We must go on foot from here,” he said.

We left the horses and guards on a small glade and took a narrow, overgrown path deeper into the forest.

The air was clear and cold, filling my lungs with each breath. The farther we went, the more clearly I heard something ahead of us, a roar that grew with every step. Louder, heavier, until at last it swallowed all other sound.

“I used to come here as a child,” Aidenar called over the noise. “I thought you might like it.”

When we pushed past the last thicket, I froze.

Before us thundered the greatest waterfall I had ever seen. We had small falls on the islands, playful streams tumbling over rock. But this, this mountain giant was something else entirely.

Water fell from a dizzying height, a white, foaming wall that plunged down hundreds of feet and crashed with a deafening roar into a lake below. Mist rose from the surface, and in the sunlight it broke into faint rainbows. There was something raw in it, and fierce, and utterly untamed.